- I am very excited to
present this week's Ask GMBN. So excited that I got ready to ride in my race top, Doddy. Are you ready to answer some questions? - Oh yeah, definitely. - Let's get stuck straight into what you guys have been asking this week. Dave Barrett is starting us off with, is it goofy to wear his full face helmet when doing normal trail riding? - It's all up to, It's relative isn't it? It's nice and safe. - It is nice and safe. I always think wearing
a helmet of any kind, good idea. If you've only got a full face, that's the helmet to wear. - Yeah, you might get a bit hot, but, - I guess there is a level
that you come down to, depending on the bike, where it can start to look a bit odd. If you're on a cross-country rig, it can look a bit weird. Not saying it's a bad idea, but it can look a bit weird. - Safety first, though. - Safety first. We're gonna go with that one, it's the right answer
- Just leave it there. - But, yeah. There's a limit, there's a limit. Favou Rick says, is it possible to enter
an amateur downhill race on his 160 mil travel enduro bike? - Course it is. - That sounds like the perfect bike to enter on, yeah.
- No brainer. What did Sam Hill ride
at the World Champs? In downhill? - Yes yeah, I think exactly that. - It was a 165 mil enduro bike. Yeah, so.
- Not bad, not bad. And he did alright. - He did do alright, didn't he? He did fairly alright in the EWS as well. Henry Currier says, how do I get the best GoPro helmet shot facing at him? - Oh, that's like a
Blake special, that is. - It's a Blake special. - What's he call it, the unicorn? - The unicorn, yes. He's got lots of different devices. I would recommend, it sounds so simple but it does work. You can just literally plant
it straight on the bars in front of you, just zip tie it on.
- Guaranteed. - Gaffer tape it on. Gaffer tape's what I'd use, and that works really well. Got any clever tips, Doddy, for that? - Yeah, use zip ties. They're better. - Zip ties, Zip tie king. Zip tie king. Yuan Lu says, "Can I ride my gravel bike at a bike park? It's got 42mm tires but no suspension." - Yeah, it's probably
not gonna feel too nice but yeah, you can ride
that in a bike park. - Yeah, it could do a bit of damage - You might have Pac-Man wheels at the end of the ride A-Line has been ridden on a gravel bike, was it a gravel bike or a road bike? - He was on a cross bike. - Cross bike. - Yeah, Yoann Barelli. - Yoann Barelli. He's done it, and Sam Pilgrim of course, when we gave him a road bike, - Poor bike
- he did a little bit of trail riding himself. Let's take a look at Road Bike Party 3 - Rad video.
- where Sam Pilgrim went nuts. (upbeat rock music) Okay, a couple more questions for you here, Doddy. This one's bang up your street. Matt Woodward's asking, he's a pretty lightweight rider, 130 pounds, he can't keep the fork pressure low enough without it sinking into the lowers. - Okay so he's diving quite a bit. - Yeah, so would air
volume spacers solve this? - Yeah, they definitely would. It's gonna make it a
little bit more supple in the beginning of his travel, would stand up in the
middle of the travel, which is what you want. Obviously it is gonna
make it more resistant to use all of the travel. That's the whole point of them, to make the fork feel progressive. Definitely try that. - So literally what's going on is he's such a light rider, he's dropping the air so low that - That he's using all
of the travel too easily Yeah, so, definitely gonna help. Well worth a try. - Well I hope that works out. Michael Stenhjem says, "Winter is knocking on the
door here in Minnesota" Here too. - Might be a bit colder where he is. - Might be, yeah. Might be a real winter. Is there anything he could do to winterize his bike? Funny he should ask. - Well, we have. We have literally just put a video up on winterizing your bike. So, check it out. - For us here in the Northern Hemisphere, winter is coming, and these are a few tips to keep your bike running sweet and hopefully get it through winter in the best condition possible. (jazz music) Bearings take a lot of work in winter with all the wet and the
grime getting into them. So things like your headset, your full suspension pivot bearings, and your bottom bracket, could really do with
being cleaned and greased. I know many of them are sealed, however, just getting
a fresh layer of grease over the top of that seal is gonna hopefully stop
water getting past that seal. - Ronald Rice, Ronald Rice,
Ronald Rice, like ice, Ron. That is a song I just made up out of Ronald Rice's name who's asking this next question. "My daughter wants to know if you could spotlight some
female mountain bikers." She's twelve, loves us
guys here on the channel and the channel itself, but she wants to see some
female riders represented. - Oh we definitely need some.
- We've got Annie Last coming up in the near future, gonna be doing some stuff with us. Obviously silver medal at Worlds in cross country
- I heard that Tahnee Seagrave might be coming to visit us as well. - Tahnee Seagrave, World Cup, no, not World Cup champion, Nearly. Nearly World Cup champion. And, hey, you know who I thought of, who's just retired, Manon Carpenter.
- Oh, Manon Be great to get Manon involved. - Manon? Where are you? - We're waiting for you. - Yes, Manon would be good. We're gonna try our best. I'll see if we can get some female racers on the channel. Uday Patel says, "I would like to know if I can convert my mechanical disk brakes to hydraulic disk brakes" because he needs more power to perform stoppies, Doddy. - Not unless you're a magician, no. - It can't be done. - You're gonna have to buy some new brakes if you really wanna have hydraulic brakes. You can get conversion kits on some cross bikes so you can run a hydraulic caliper with roadie style brakes but, you know, on road bikes it doesn't really matter. - No, no. - No, the answer is save up and buy some hydraulic brakes. - You've just gotta be
harsh with the answer. It's a no. - Okay, no then. - James Thomas. "Would I be better off
buying a full-sus MTB with 120 mil travel front and back, or going with a hardtail
with 140 mil up front?" - You haven't really told us much about, or anything about where you ride
- That's all you get, Doddy you're gonna have to
answer with just that. - Okay, well based on the fact, I'm guessing you're on a budget, I would go for the hardtail
with the up to 140 fork cause it sounds like you're gonna get more bike for the money. - Yeah. - Boom. Done. - Ben Hensley is asking, he lives in Kitzbuhel in Austria, and while there's plenty of fun to be had in the summer and autumn, winter is off limits, even to a fat bike, even if you put studded tires on, it cannot be done, Doddy. - Oh, okay. - So he wants to know, is there anywhere in or near Europe where he can go for some
cheap winter riding? - Loads of places, yeah. I mean, the immediate
place this brings to mind is southern Spain. - Yes. - You're always guaranteed
like great weather down there loads of good destinations. Malaga, Alicante, places like that. - Yeah. - There's various, sort of, mountain bike tour operators down there offering everything from XC to sort of downhill-based holidays. Check out Roost. Also check out Switchbacks. There's a whole bunch of
different companies around. - And so is it bike park stuff or sort of pretty natural trails? - No, natural sort of trails you don't have to ride bike park stuff. They're guided so you could say that they might feel like a bike park cause you know where you're going. - Well, Ben, Coming from
Kitzbuhel in Austria where you're gonna have a
bit of a bike park feel, some really cool set up stuff there going over to more natural trail down in southern Spain I hope, let's take a look at bike park versus natural riding. - Perfect link. This is what mountain biking is really all about. Look at the views. It's not all about man-made trails. Getting out there, winching yourself to the top and earning that descent, and then riding miles of single track. That is real mountain biking for me. It's not all about bike parks, you know. Whoa, whoa, whoa - Get outta here, Doddy. Bike parks are obviously the best. Tons of jumps, you're shredding with your buddies, you've got bars, you've got everything. And, wait. Why pedal up when you can
catch the gondola all the way and save all your energy for shredding down the mountain? - Steve JJH is asking, he can't get his manuals dialed. He's blaming his 29+ bike even though he knows
it's his technique really - Oh, okay. - Can a manual be done on any bike? - Well technically, yes. - Even an e-bike? - Yes. - I'm still reading from Steve here, have you guys done it? - No, cause I've not spent enough time on an e-bike to be honest but we're gonna do that definitely. - You can manual any bike. If a bike's got two wheels and handlebars, you can manual it. - Maybe not a tandem. - Except for a tandem. - Or one of those weird cargo bikes.
- I was just doing the calculations there and I thought, no, tandem ain't gonna work.
- Those weird cargo bikes might be a bit tricky with a back end that's
about three foot long. - Some bikes you can't do it on. Some bikes. Most bikes you can do it on, though. - But you can definitely manual 29+. Definitely
- You know it's you, dude. You know it's you. - Practice makes perfect. - Patrick Van Der Akker says, oh this is a sad story. The paint job on the top tube of his alu Trek Stache is
seriously delaminating, and unfortunately outside
of the guarantee period. His local bike shop is saying it's because of the sweat creeping into the cable holders and the consequent rust. Is that a load of BS or not? - Yeah, total BS. Okay, right, so the only reason that sweat would do that
sort of damage to a bike is if it's, well basically a bike
that's on a turbo trainer so it just sat in a static position and sweat's hammering off you basically. I've seen a lot of corrosion
damage on bikes from that, but no, it just sounds like you've got an unlucky bike with paint that's started flaking - Well he's asking here, Can we do a how-to on painting your bike and paint repair? - Do you know what, I was speaking to my mate
Ali from Fat Creations - Yes. - Really cool custom painter. And actually we were speaking about doing something similar like this cause he says it's the biggest question he gets asked actually, just about repairing chips. And so, his theory on this is there's a really quick and easy way to do this yourself, and quite cheap as well. So you go down to your local DIY shop and take your bike with you, and get them to mix up
like a little pot of paint, a little sample, so it won't really cost you anything, to the color of your bike. Just tell them you like
the color of your bike sort of thing. Take that paint home and get some 600 wet and dry paper, so sort of very fine emery paper, and you just want to scrape off the flecks with a fine screwdriver, obviously careful not to
cut yourself or your bike, get rid of those bits, then with the wet and dry put a bit of washing up liquid on it, which apparently helps it
cut the paint a bit better, rub it down until you've
taken the edges off so it's nice and feathered, drip on the paint and sort of wait for it to dry, and when it's smooth, sort of smooth it down even afterwards, and then nick some of your other half's sort of lacquer stuff
they use on their nails - Nail varnish. Yeah, yeah.
- That's the one Yeah, and then when that's dry you can polish it up. - Genius. We've gotta try that
- and that's his tip. Yeah, I've got a chip on my own bike so I'm gonna try that exact thing. But let us know if you do it cause it'd be really cool to see. - We're gonna do exactly that video. That one's gonna be a lot of fun. Ryan Ostiguy says, is there any benefit in
running an 11-speed chain on his one by 10 set up? - No, none. - That was simple. Could've put that in quick
fire round, couldn't I? - We could've done Stick to 10-speed. 10-speed's cheaper as well. - Tobias Lawson-Dick says, "I know the benefit of having
the rear mech clutch on, what are the benefits of having
the rear mech clutch off? - Well two. One, it makes it easier
to remove your rear wheel, cause you can move the mech out of the way and you're not fighting that clutch, and the second one is, on certain suspension designs, the clutch can actually act like a low-speed compression damper and actually hinder the suspension. We're talking, like, a minute amount. But someone who's very tuned in to the way a bike rides might be able to feel
that on certain bikes, like exaggerated single pivots. - Yeah, I bet that feels horrible. - I know a few people who
could tell day and night, but most people won't notice that. - Okay, Andy J says, "Can you do a video on how to make no-bake energy bars?" - Nah. - Well, We're not a cooking channel, but, but, right - We have got something similar. - We have tried to make some energy bars, so take a look at this. - So today, in a first for GMBN, and myself actually, we're in the kitchen. We're with Tim Morris of Podium Catering who looks after Atherton
Racing at the World Cups, does their breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so knows how to fuel the
top World Cup riders. - We're making cranberry
granola bars today. - Cool, so they're something you can chuck in your pack for big long rides, something like that? - Excellent, yeah, just like that. And super easy to make as well. - Quick fire is the most difficult bit of the show for Doddy because he hasn't got time to think. I think that sounds safer. Let's just get into it
and see what happens. Jim Bain says, "Can Neil flip?" - Yes. - No he can't. - He can. - He can't Zach Sigouin says, "Is Martin's chair tubeless?" - Yes. - "Does he have any bike hacks on it?" - Yeah, you've got some
handlebar tape on there. - Yeah, I've got handlebar tape on the metal bar thing makes it feel like dropper bars. What's weird is I had
to ask you that question and I'm in it, I did it. Torsten Davis says, "Would anything bad happen to my hardtail if I put a 35 mil stem on it with a Renthal Fatbar?" - No, it might feel a bit too short if your bike's, say, got
a much longer stem on it. - I think it sounds fine. - Yeah, sounds fun. - I've heard of much
weirder things than that. Martin Cantwell, "Will ye ever give the
Red Bull Foxhunt a go?" - I know Blake wanted to do it and he kinda got shot down cause someone else wanted to do it and it never really happened in the end. So, maybe. - Little bit of GMBN infighting there. Kerry Perez says, "Why do you guys dislike/hate bar ends?" Well would we say hate?
- We don't. - I don't think that I hate them. - I used to love bar ends. - I mean I love driving buses. I love it - When I started mountain biking, everyone had bar ends and 18 inch wide handlebars. - Yeah, bar ends can look
cool on the right bike, but now I think - It's only him that doesn't like them. - It's just it's like driving a bus. - Well you used to ride trials with a stem about that long, so You're not one to talk
- You shouldn't listen to me. Don't worry about what I think. Right, let's get into
Correct Me If I'm Wrong. So, some sort of suitable
drum roll buildup is required.
- (imitates drum roll) There we go, how's that? - Actually, we've gotta come back to a question from last week. We're not really correcting us, but it was a little bit more information on what we were talking about in terms of prescription goggles. - Oh, yeah, okay. - Now, Israel Zenteno sent in, said you can get stick-on
lenses for diving goggles. It's quite common apparently. And he said this would surely work in the same way for riding goggles. So, if you're out there and you're looking for
prescription goggles, - That sounds like quite a good idea - Look into the diving world because apparently they've
got a solution for it. So, great to hear that, thanks Israel. - Good tip. - Right, our Correct Me
If I'm Wrong this week is from Cameron Ravenhill, doing a huge drop down some stairs, he's asking how he can improve it. It's a big old huck, this. You're gonna like it, Doddy. Boy, he goes for it. He really does go for it. He's got his friends out watching, here he comes. Crack. - [Doddy] Oh my god. I don't think he did anything to lessen the impact there, did he? - I think if we just see
that slightly slower, - It looked like he picked up
as he went off that as well. - Yeah, he really does send it there and he slaps the front end down. He really does. So as he comes in, I mean how many steps is that? It's getting onto 15, is it? He really hucks up, look at the height. Whack. - Yeah, that's not gonna
do your bike too much good. - He's a bit off the back. - But, at the same time it's pretty cool that you're even jumping those stairs. - Yeah, but how can he do it smoother? - Go a lot faster. - A bit faster, I think bring the back end
up when you're in there - You can place the bike
on the ground a bit better. - (imitates landing sound) Like that. Rather than just a (imitates motorcycle sound) It's like when you're on a motorcycle you're really grabbing some
throttle at that point. - It also looked like, it's hard to tell from that angle, it looked like there was
a grass bank to the sides. So if you go really fast you can sort of air to the bank. - Absolutely, that's a good idea. - Have a look at it from
a few different angles. - Right, so that's the
end of Ask this week. Thanks for watching, why don't you get involved in the comments section down there, throw us a question for next week, or hashtag "askgmbn", or you can send us an email, ask@gmbn.com. That's where you throw your questions. You'll be on the show next week. Doddy, can you throw these
guys to another video to keep them involved in GMBN? - Definitely. Check out Nico Vink's Scott Gambler Fest Series bike right here. Sick bike, that is. - Yeah it's a lovely bike, lovely bike. Great rider too. I'm gonna throw you to two crazy guys trying to do trials. Our trials challenge where I set - Definitely gotta be crazy to do trials.
- Doddy versus Blake. Actually they've got some trial skills so it's worth clicking on. Doddy's actually a lot better, but Blake kind of cheated. But it's worth a watch. And hit the globe there to subscribe, and of course, only one thing left to do, give us a thumbs up like because, well, we like them. - Yeah, we like the thumbs up.
